HeraclesOmphale1.0002

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), (Hercules' moral debasement by Iole [sic], conflated with Omphale, in) Conventus dolentium [A Gathering of the Mournful]. In De casibus virorum illustrium [The Fates of Illustrious Men] 1.12; didactic poem in Latin (1355-73?).

Boccaccio's treatise enumerates the demise of great men of the past, from Adam to King John of France (def. by English at Poitiers, 1356). "Among them, Hercules stood out, entering with a bedraggled face, his beard black and shaggy, his hair uncombed, clad in the hide of the Nemean Lion, and bearing a club in his right hand. His bellowing filled the regions round about with untoward echoes; he said that he deserved attention above all others, since he had subdued all of world's pestilential monstrosities beneath his famous prowess, that he had overcome all King Eurystheus' commands, but bested by only one single malady, namely by lust. At lust's urging he was immorally reclining on the bosom Iole and he had arranged his hair to her liking, had freshened his beard with eastern unguents, had put on purple-dyed clothes, had adorned his fingers with rings, and — this is the very worst thing an effeminate man can do — for pleasure he had spun thread on a distaff among strumpets. And through all these appalling activities he tarnished all the illustrious achievements of his earlier career for disgrace. Indeed, this Hercules would have busied my pen further, had I not realized that it is inconsistent to sully with my meagre account his glory which the chorus of all noble poets strives to extol to the stars above.” (Trans. by RTM)

Boccaccio, here as also later in Book 1 (p. 43-44 Hall,) seems to have mis-remembered the Omphale myth and introduced a variant into the Omphale reception, one to be followed by subsequent artists. According to Reid (s.v. HeraclesIole1.0000_Reid) "In some later myths, the story of Iole was conflated with that of Omphale, perhaps because Heracles' servitude to the queen was payment for the crime he had committed in the pursuit of Iole." Boccaccio's 14th-century error resonates down the receptionsgeschichte thereafter.

Bibliography:
Louis Brewer Hall, trans. (1965) The Fates of Illustrious Men (Abridged) . New York: Ungar.

The image at right is HeraclesOmphaleANCIENT_Herculaneum